BOOJUM!: BRAIN-SUCKING BLOVIATING VAMPIRES FROM VENUS!!

There, I Bet That Got Your Attention
I also bet you're tutting and shaking your head at Conrad's shameless trolling for traffic. Well, you're partly right. Actually I intend to hammer another nail into that list of credulous witlessness that the BBC put about as "Eight Unsolved British Mysteries". I've already trampled over two of them in the Hobnail Boots Of Untrammelled Truth, so let's wheel on the third. Art?

3. The Highgate Vampire

Since the 1960s, people have reported sightings of a vampire in one of London’s most beautiful cemeteries in Highgate. A man named Sean Manchester claimed the figure was a vampire. Manchester’s story became embellished with each new report, until word was spread that the figure was a Romanian vampire king who had been buried in the cemetery, then liberated by his satanic followers. Alleged sightings have carried on since. No bitings reported.

The cemetery itself.

Shall we commence the demolition? Splendid! <rubs hands and cackles>
"Since the 60's -" TWADDLE. Nothing began until the Seventies. Do get your facts right!
     "Sean Manchester" NUTTER! has been engaged in a publicity battle with another goitre called David Farrant since the Seventies about the alleged Highgate Vampire. They both claim to be the One And Only Truly Original ~~Pink Panther~~ Fearless Vampire Slayer, they both hate each other and whenever they warble on about the subject, completely omit and ignore the other.
" - became embellished -" TRANSALATION: LIED ABOUT. O you bet it did. From Farrant claiming to have seen something grey one night whilst walking past(on Christmas Eve, quite possibly full of Christmas spirits), we now have the Royal Retinue of Romania camped out in the cemetery, with an accompanying parade of incredibly disparate ghosts.

No, Art, wrong kind of leader. And a bit late to the party, too.

"No bitings reported." Ah, but that's only because Farrant and Manchester haven't gotten within gnashing distance of each other. You just wait!

The whole thing is a typhoon in a thimble, with nothing more to go on than "Alleged sightings", whipped up by a couple of bumbletucks who seem to lack a proper hobby, and who appear to have had their brains sucked out of their heads. Like "Fiend Without A Face"!
I know what you're going to say: Venus is a hell planet where you would be roasted, toasted, flattened and battened, so how come -
To which my rejoinder is that, yes, it's an awful place, and people (even vampires) would far rather live in a nice green peaceful cemetery than Venus, if they had any sense.

No, no, young lady - you've mistaken a Faceless Fiend for your headphones - silly girl!

I say, motley, should we get out the camping stove and melt some lead, just to get the ambience of a Venusian afternoon correct? What? Gasmasks! Don't be silly - what could possibly go wrong?

Zoomy Zoomy
It go boomy. Conrad stumbled across a picture of what was dubbed "Concorde II", an aircraft being dreamed up by NASA (presumably between intervals of torturing aliens and try to blow up Jupiter). I don't have time to research this properly as work begins in 10 minutes, so here's a picture to keep you interested.

The "Boom" bit is when it breaks the sound barrier

It certainly looks the part, does it not?

Bikini Bottom Takes A Pasting
"Spongebob and Gary are safe and well; Squidward may be missing, or not, as we don't like him enough to bother searching," said the spokesperson for US Navy Task Force F87d earlier today.
Sorry, couldn't resist. Art?

Bathymetric map of the Operation Crossroads test site

False colour map of Bikini Atoll Seafloor
(Which is conceptually close to Bikini Bottom)

This is a fascinating little item on the BBC's website, about scientific research being done at Bikini Atoll, site of the world's first underwater fission-bomb test. You may be familiar with the impressively terrifying shots of the device being detonated. Art?

Seconds after detonation

This was only a 21 kiloton weapon, so only a baby in today's terms. The ships visible in the picture above were sacrificial victims to test real-world weapon effects, so empty of crews but full of fuel and munitions. You can see their carcasses in the colour photo, looking like needles; dangerous to divers thanks to unexploded ordnance, not to mention radioactivity*. That big purple blob is the underwater crater, which is still extant with barely any erosion: 10 yards deep and 800 yards across, which is a testament to how Hom. Sap. ought to be very, very careful with the Big Bang Bombs, because once dropped they mar the landscape for an awfully long time. After all, who wouldn't like to see a nice, smooth, unblemished Bikini Bottom**?

Wow that was grim! Grim and interesting at the same time. What next?

"Raising Churchill's Army" By Prof. David French
I have finally finished this long and detailed look at the army raised by and for Perfidious Albion in the Second Unpleasantness, which I'm sure you are glad to hear. Expect a short discussion on stuffs from it shortly. Art?

Image result for raising churchill's army

Thus

However! The aphorism that I have long associated with this work is nowhere to be found. It is "The British decided they would be soldiers, not warriors". In essence this means that Perfidious Albion deliberately chose to use technology, mechanisation, firepower, horsepower, deception (of course!) and intelligence to wage war, and that it actively avoided the kind of militarism we see endemic in the Nazi state. No nonsense about warrior cults or anti-<insert everything the Nazis disliked here> crusades.
So - I have definitely read this phrase somewhere - but where***?
This Will Make Sense On Facebook, Honestly
If I recall correctly, Durham does not possess a cathedral, and it was once mentioned by Sir John Peel when doing a voiceover for a product that escapes me utterly. Art?

Durham town

Finally -
"LANGUID" as Collins Crossword book answer. How many of you would have gotten that correct, hmmm? I can't remember what the clue was, which means it's not important.
Anyway, where does "Languid" come from? Why I thought you'd never ask!
Latin, of course, the root being "Laxus" for loose. From there it evolved into "Languere" that became the Old French for "Languiss" and from there we get "Languish". You know, when you drape yourself over the settee, bewail the state of the world and get through a couple of tubs of Hagen-Daz. Maybe three.